where to even begin

there is a lot to catch up on here since I haven't managed to post here since mid-October

do I post chronologically? in order of importance? stream of consciousness?

perhaps to just begin --- so hold on, this is likely to be a long (and possibly confusing!) post

Word of the Year

for a number of years I have selected a word to be a guideline for the year to come, having decided that resolutions are not as useful for me

last year my word was "Open", with the idea being to be open to new ideas, new opportunities, new solutions

as the year rolled out I was able to be open to things:
     accepting and completing a large commission
     spending a long weekend as Artist in Residence alone in the middle of a meadow
     saying good bye to a teacher and mentor as she moved away from the area
     continuing to apply to have my work shown all over the country and sometimes succeeding

I have decided that the word for this year is "Acceptance", and I am considering this word in a couple of different ways

for one, I will continue to submit my work for display to galleries, libraries, museums, on line exhibits - in short just about any place that I think it might be accepted

but I also need to use this word to deal with issues that are out of my control  in the day to day issues in my life (more about that presently)


Christmas Reveal

I work on Christmas presents all year long (in fact, I'm about half way through the first of the presents for Christmas 2019 right now)

but that means there are a lot of things I can't talk about along the way because I don't want to spoil the Christmas surprise

now that all the gift giving is over, I can show you what all those projects were

off the knitting sticks:

cowl scarves in blue tones for my sister and in rust and blue for my daughter

the annual cardigan sweater for my daughter in black and a cardigan for my mother in a color called "Peacock"

socks for my daughter to wear with her hiking boots

a pony tail hat for my daughter, ear warmers for my grandson and all of the great grand kids

and from the crochet hook

an odd flock of birds:  a blue footed booby chick, a conure, a humming bird, a parrot and a peacock

and an equally odd group of other animals:  a bison, a dragon, a malamute and an octopus

the sewing machine did some work too

10 pair of pj pants (for all the great grand kids, my grandson, my daughter and son in law) and a new lap quilt for my daughter


Work in the Studio

 this piece, titled "Charlie" has been delivered to the Boulder County Parks and Rec building and will appear in several county buildings during the next year

it is based on photos that I took while I was Artist in Residence at Caribou Ranch Open Spaces last July

this piece, titled "Seasons of the Moon" is a triptych of 7" by 9" pieces mounted on stretcher bars that was finished in late December

"On the Beach" is being quilted

the water tower piece is ready to be quilted

and this piece, which is the latest in my Parched Earth series, is being appliqued

as usual, I'm also working on the patterns for the next pieces that I plan to make -- "The Road Not Taken" which is based on photos taken at Caribou Ranch, and another piece in the Family Ties series "The Singer"


A word more about acceptance

the biggest reason I didn't get a blog post done since October is that the DH was hospitalized twice 

in November he had a blocked bile duct (wherein we learned that gall stones don't necessarily go away if you don't have a gallbladder!)

and in December he had an allergic reaction to a medication he had taken for years --- he spent a week in ICU, then additional days in the hospital followed by time in rehab so he could get strong enough to come home

along the way we also learned he has an irregular heart beat that is now controlled with medications, and even more seriously that he is in the beginning stages of dementia

this last thing has been both difficult to accept and at the same time good to know what is happening so the right adjustments and changes could be made

going forward I will be handling all of his diabetic testing and injections to be sure he gets the proper monitoring and dosing of his insulin

there has been a certain amount of emotional upheaval for me as I come to grips with the changes and the finality of what this means, so I truly need to incorporate that word for the year


A final note 

Mr Benson is my partner in looking after "dad"

he's a great emotional support dog for both of us, and does a very nice "Timmy's down the well" bark if he thinks I need to know something dad is doing

it was wonderful that he was here while dad was in the hospital -- gave me a sense of "normal" every day


 

Celebrating -- and the great Christmas Reveal

even though we had worked on a lot of things ahead of time, there is always a project or two that we're still doing the week of Christmas

on Tuesday my daughter and Mr Cute came to spend some time so my daughter could work on some sewing projects -- she brought her sewing machine, but because we couldn't figure out the bobbin issue on her machine without the manual in hand, she did a lot of the work on mom's scary machine -- and survived it!

while we were working on sewing, Mr Cute did some art work

this piece was my favorite of all of them, and is now hanging on the wall in my office

   

we had snow and fog and cold and a beautiful sunrise on the first full day of winter

I took these pictures from the comfort of my front porch -- and I think there may be a piece of art that comes out of them

Christmas Eve meant there was more baking to do -- the pumpkin pie and the angel food cake

and as a nod to the San Francisco Bay area, where we spent many Christmas Eves, we had cioppino and cannolis for our dinner

Christmas day, our daughter, son-in-law and Mr Cute were here for Santa socks and presents and dinner

and on Saturday we had all of my side of the extended family here for gift exchange and all ten of us around the table for a mid day meal

we know how to set up a great buffet!  thanks to the two feet of snow that stacked up on our back deck and the cold that followed, we just opened the back door and shoveled a big basket of snow to use for keeping the drinks cold!

because we were in transition from house to house this year, I needed to work on projects that were portable

knitting was a big thing under the tree -- my original plan was to knit the hat that was black with the key board for my daughter, and I ordered what I thought was the right amount of the lovely cotton/bamboo/silk yarn -- but after I knit that one, there was more yarn, so I decided to make one in the reverse for my sister -- and still there was yarn, so I knit the one with the sasiko patterning for my nephew -- and there was STILL yarn, so my brother in law got the wild patterned hat

since the first pair of Ninja mittens I made for Mr Cute were a "just fits", I knit him a second pair that will last a while longer

and this year's sweater for my daughter is purely "fashion", not at all for warmth -- all this lace work and it came out beautiful (don't let that picture fool you!)

 

it's sort of a tradition that I make some sort of critter to put in the top of the Christmas socks

this year I did BobGoblin, an big ear bunny and Norville the dragon

and a self standing mouse nutcracker for a friend's collection!

 

once my studio was finished there was a lot of sewing that went on -- the usual pj pants, and a number of aprons, but this was the hit of the bunch

the remake of the dinosaur costume from two Halloweens ago that Mr Cute had outgrown -- I carefully removed the tail and spikes from the old sweat suit then attached them along with some additional spots to a new sweat suit that I make for him

his mom's challenge will be getting him out of it long enough to wash it!

and the new quilt for my daughter and son-in-law has gone to live at their house now -- it's all good

I've started working on the edging of this piece -- it has now become the priority to finish next as I want to enter it in an online challenge that the deadline for is Jan 4

and the barn is ready to be attached to the background of the Out to Pasture piece

this is what this project is heading for -- except this week I also decided that those darker pieces at the bottom are too distracting, so I've been picking them out and putting in lighter colors

and the original plan for the truck was to put all of the underside in shadow so you couldn't see the tire on the left had side -- but I just didn't like that whole look -- trouble was the original picture was that way, so I had to create something for that space so it didn't look like the truck was in danger of falling over -- so I drew a cinder block to sit under there -- I like that!

yup, it was a busy, BUSY week!